Suction cup mounts are generally well-known and commonly used to temporarily mount and secure objects to hard smooth surfaces such as the surfaces of glass, plastic, Formica, glazed tile, metal, and other hard smooth surfaces. A vehicle's windshield is one convenient surface that lends itself to mounting a suction cup device. However, paraphernalia mounted on the windshield may interfere with a driver's vision and is expected to raise safety concerns.
Unfortunately, interiors of automotive and other vehicles provide few other hard smooth surfaces appropriate for mounting a suction cup, especially within view of the driver.
As disclosed by Schreiber, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,210 “Paneling Member For The Interior Of Automotive Vehicles, Especially A Dashboard” issued May 5, 1987, which is incorporated herein by reference, modern vehicle dashboards generally have a rigidifying supporting member molded into a semi-hard polyurethane foam body, usually having pronounced artistic contours. The foam body is covered on the side facing the passenger compartment with a covering of vacuum-formed ABS or PVC sheet of differing colors and textures. Alternatively, the covering is made of foamed sheet, synthetic leather-like materials such as vinyl, leather, imitation leather, textile fabric, or the like.
These foam-covered pronounced artistic contours and synthetic imitation finishes provide few other hard smooth surfaces appropriate for mounting a suction cup. Thus, temporarily mounting and securing objects to automotive vehicle interior surfaces is often problematic.